分权体制下辖区竞争、策略性财政政策对雾霾污染治理的影响

Impacts of government competition and strategic fiscal policy on treatment of haze pollution under the system of decentralization

中国的雾霾大爆发与过去30多年粗放型发展方式密切相关,而财政分权体制是这一发展模式的核心。本文以分权体制下的辖区竞争与策略性财政政策为切入点,实证探索财政体制对雾霾污染的影响机理。基于2007—2015年26个省市的面板数据研究发现:首先,建立空间滞后模型从税收与财政支出两个方面检验了辖区竞争,结果证明我国辖区间已经存在激烈的标杆竞争,并且竞争的手段已经逐渐从粗放式的税收竞争发展为多样化的财政支出策略竞争。地理位置相邻、经济发展水平与资本流动的相似性是辖区政府选择竞争对象的关键因素。其次,利用分位数回归刻画了财政支出偏好的动态形成过程,证明了分权体制是引致地方政府财政支出结构失调的重要因素。最后,利用分位数回归揭示了分权体制下策略财政政策对雾霾污染的引发机制主要是通过分权体制-财政支出-雾霾污染的传导通道。因此,面对我国雾霾大爆发的严峻形势,应理顺各级政府间的纵向财政关系,促进环境事权与支出责任相匹配,建立稳定、可预见的支出分担标准;同时可以通过建立雾霾污染专项转移支付体系对分权体制下地方政府承担过多的事权进行财权补偿;推行离任环境审计制度也极其重要,通过改变政绩考核标准阻断地方官员对经济数量型增长的狂热追求,以避免财政支出偏好与环境管制标准制定上的机会主义倾向,打破晋升锦标下的短期行为,为辖区提供高效的异质性环境公共服务,从而改善雾霾污染。

Outbreak of haze pollution in China is closely related to the extensive mode of development over the past thirty years,and the fiscal decentralization system is the core of this development model. In this paper,the competition strategy and fiscal policy under the decentralization system are taken as the breakthrough point,and the influence mechanism of the financial system on the haze pollution is explored empirically. Based on the panel data of 26 provinces and municipalities in 2007-2015,we find that： first,we establish a space lag model to test the area competition from two aspects of tax revenue and fiscal expenditure. The results prove that there is fierce benchmarking competition in our jurisdiction,and the means of competition have gradually developed from extensive tax competition to diversified fiscal expenditure strategies. The geographical proximity,the level of economic development and the similarity of capital flows are the key factors for the local government to choose the competition object. Second,the use of quantile regression to characterize the dynamic formation of fiscal spending preference,decentralized system is an important factor leading to the imbalance of local government expenditure structure. Finally,the use of quantile regression reveals that the mechanism of the fiscal policy smuggling under the decentralization system is mainly through the decentralized system-financial expenditure-haze pollution transmission channel.Therefore,in face of the harsh situation of China’s haze explosion,the vertical fiscal relations among all levels of government should be straightened out,the environmental rights and spending responsibilities should be matched,and a stable and predictable standard of expenditure sharing should be established. At the same time,through the establishment of a special system of transfer of haze pollution payment system decentralized power system under the authority of local governments to assume more compensation. It is also very important to implement the outgoing environmental auditing system. Changing the standard of performance evaluation can reduce the local officials to fall into fanatical pursuit of economic growth,avoid the preference of fiscal expenditure and the propensity of opportunism in the formulation of environmental control standards,break the short-term behavior under the promotion championship,and provide highly effective and heterogeneous environmental public services to the area so as to improve haze pollution.